大象传媒

In the first months of the war I was in Cliftonville, the school that in attended closed and I then went to Holy Trinity School, then in 1940 we were asked if we wanted to be evacuated, I said yes but the teacher said I would have to ask my mum and dad if they would let me. The next thing I knew was everything was labled and we were taken on a train journey which ended when we arrived in a little village called Stonnal. Ray Hyde and myself were billeted with Mr and Mrs Gunn, we called them Auntie Josie and Uncle Frank, they were smashing, we kept in touch with them until they went to Australia. I won a scholarship for Chatham House School, this meant I had to move to Uttoxeter.
In Christmas 1943 I contacted Rhumatic fever and this curtaild my education with Chatham House and other schools for at least five months. I returned to Margate and carried on with my education at St John's School, left just before my 14th birthday starting work as an electrician.
One thing I remember as if it were yesterday was when the gliders flew over in droves, one became detached from its tow plane, it landed close to where I lived just up the road by the Wheatsheaf Inn, on the old Tram Track. When I went to look they were setting up two poles onto which they hooked the gliders tow-rope looped across. Just then a DC3 aircraft flew low over, and at treetop hight it swooped down and the glider was up, up and away. This was very exciting for a 13 year old boy I waqs able to brag about it to my mates at school.
Later in 1944 we had a blast bomb land on my mates Anderson Shelter, but although his family used it every night, this night because my mate had a cold, they used the Morrison Shelter in the front room, when they went out after the raid they found that the back of the house was missing and no sign of the Anderson Shelter only a large crater. How's that for luck.
That was not the only luck that night, we like a lot of people by that time of the war would hear the siren and turn over in bed until the pips went,(The pips were usualy the gas works hooter which were sounded when the raid was local) but on this night we, as a family, went next door into our neibour's Anderson Shelter and when the bomb went off my sister and myself threw ourselves onto mum, when all had settled down we asked each other where did we think the bomb had landed, to this mum said what bomb? When we went into our house all the plaster from the ceiling was everywhere and in my sister's bedroom a large piece of shrapnel had penetrated the wall above her head causing a big bit of breeze-block to land just where head would have been if she had stayed in bed, again a lucky escape!
In the last 12 months of the war I and a friend weremade messenger boys for an A.A. Battery. We had Two-way radios, R35 I think they were. They were very heavy with old type earphones and throat mikes, which were very good. At Easter that last year we with the goodness of my mother, took three dozen Hot Cross Buns and Two Jugs of hot coffee to the men on the gunsite, a good time was had by all.
After it was all over (The War) I became an electrician, then went into the RAF for five and a half years and four reserve, I retired in 1996, married in 1975 my wife Anne and I have two children a boy and a girl.
War memories still come back over and over again, I would not like it to happen again but at the same time I'm glad I got through it!

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